How to Identify a Scholarly Article
TIPS: Scholarly sources are those produced and reviewed by people with recognized expertise in a particular field of study. Scholarly articles are found in scholarly journals - sometimes called peer-reviewed journals. SCF subscribes to databases that provide these academic resources.
To find a scholarly article in a database you can often check a box that limits your search to peer-reviewed journals. This box is sometimes found on a Basic Search, but almost always on an Advanced Search in a database.
Ways to identify an online scholarly or peer-reviewed article:
- Author(s) - Clearly identified author(s) usually with credentials
- References - lists of works cited at the end
- Title - usually descriptive, lengthy and uses professional terms
- Length - is the article 5 pages or longer?
- Ask - check with your Librarian or Professor
- Review - look at the elements of the article. Make sure it has what the assignment requires, such as, tables, conclusions, methodology and other research articles elements.
To learn more about the difference between scholarly and popular articles, check out the links below.